This was the week for revisiting recipes I’ve already blogged about. Maybe I just wasn’t feeling creative, but I think I just wasn’t feeling on my A-Game. In any case, we had a great week of food, and luckily all the repeats turned out better the second time around. In early March, I blogged about my experiment using top round steak in place of flank steak. The meat was tough and blah, and I was disappointed. I went back to my usual flank steak this time, with great results. In that round, I plated the meal poorly as well as drowned it in sauce, cause I was trying to overcome my meat. This was much better. The meat was tender and juicy and the sauce complementary instead of dominating.

Flank Steak is cooked opposite of the way you normally cook steaks on a grill. The goal is to avoid grill marks, as you don’t want your flank steak to curl up and cook unevenly.

Flank Steak serves 5

Flank Steak

Olive Oil

Kosher Salt

Fresh Ground Pepper

Yep, that’s it. All you need. Rub your flank steak in olive oil, then sprinkle with salt and pepper. Heat your grill pan just above medium heat.  When hot, add flank steak, then turn every couple of minutes, rotating the meat to avoid a solitary set of grill marks as you would want with a steak.  The whole process takes around 10 minutes.  Cook to an internal temp of 135, then move to a cutting board and let the meat rest for a full 15 minutes.  Cut against the grain, and serve topped with the herb sauce.

4 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 tsp salt

1/2 a bunch flat leaf parsley, stems trimmed, finely chopped

7 sprigs of fresh mint, leaves removed, chopped

3 tbsps. capers

15-20 pitted Nicoise or Kalamata olives, chopped

1 tsp anchovy paste, optional
1/2 c. olive oil

In a small bowl, combine garlic and salt. Mash with a fork to make a paste. Add parsley, mint, capers, anchovy paste, and olives. Cover with olive oil and stir. Let stand at least 30 minutes for flavors to combine. Serve on flank steak.